Chapter 4

Tate

Red eyes appear out of the darkness. A large form slowly follows until a wolf steps into the moon light and the size of him plus his eyes make him look like a demon from hell. Teeth so sharp that they can rip through flesh so easily snap at me as I struggle to get back. He’s coming for me and I’m not the only one. There are signs of a slaughter all around me. Every person being a familiar face, and I am the last one standing.

Where did he come from? Why did he come here?

There are so many questions running in my head, but I can’t get them out. I open my mouth to scream just as he lunges for me. My whole body jolts when I wake up suddenly. I look around to see flowers everywhere. It takes me a second to remember where we are, and another to try and calm down.

“The nightmare again?” I hear Han ask from across the room.

I lift my head to see him sitting in one of the floral chairs. The guy barely sleeps but it doesn’t show.

“Yeah. How long have you been awake?” I ask trying to sit up but I grunt when a heavy weight prevents me.

A glance to my side and the arm across my chest tells me Ash is still cuddled up to me. Now that it’s morning I don’t want him all over me, so I lift his arm and push him over. He goes without a fight and the motion doesn’t wake him one bit.

“I only slept a couple of hours. I couldn’t rest with us being in a strange place.”

“Yeah.” I climb off the bed and stretch. “I could really use a run. Maybe we should try and find a stop on the way we can do it safely. We can’t go a month without shifting. Especially Ash.”

“Agreed. We can move on after we get some food.” Han says standing and moving over to the bed.

He leans over Ash and gets close to his ear before releasing a low growl. Ash jolts awake and nearly shifts in an instant before he realizes it was Han.

“Come on man, I could have made a huge mess in this freakish room if I shifted.” He drops back on the bed breathing hard and looking up at the ceiling.

He isn’t wrong about destroying this place. His wolf is one of the biggest in our pack, in fact the three of us are all the biggest, even bigger than my father. It’s strange for an Alpha to be so small but I guess there’s always a first. A knock at the room door has us all on alert until we hear an overly happy voice.

“Morning boys! Breakfast is ready! Come down and visit the other guests.” The woman calls out.

Han walks over to the door and opens it. “We’ll be down soon. Thank you for the invitation.”

“Of course! Bye now.” She walks away and Han closes the door behind her.

“There is no way they have enough food to feed the three of us. We’ll have to grab food on the road. Like burgers!” Ash says as he grabs his clothes and starts to pull them on.

“I am good with that. Tate?” They both look at me.

I smirk. “If milkshakes are included then hell yeah!”

Ash whoops and grabs his bag. “Let’s go then!”

Han and I grab our stuff and head out. We can hear people talking downstairs and try to leave without being seen.

“Oh, boys there you are!” I cringe and pull on the fakest smile I can manage to greet our host. “I have some very special guests this morning. Why don’t you come say hi!”

“Great, probably a bunch of old ladies.” Ash whispers behind me.

We follow the owner into the large dining room and Ash couldn’t be more wrong. Actually, it’s the opposite, there is a room full of women looking like they range from eighteen to thirty. Oh no.

“Ladies! These are the young men I’ve been telling you about. They are new in town, and I thought there was no one better to welcome them than the town planning committee.” She points over to a table with three girls already seated. “There are your seats boys. Why don’t you sit, and I’ll bring you some tea. Enjoy a scone while you talk.”

“We can still run.” Ash offers but this might prove to be a good opportunity.

All these single, at least I hope they are single, woman in one place. When I look over at Han, he looks less than impressed but he’ll get on board soon enough. He’s ready to turn right back around and pick the girl from the bar, Willow, but it’s too soon. We have a month to search for and court a girl which means if we waste time on one girl, we may not have time to meet anyone else. We cannot wait another year to do this again.

“No. She has scones.” I wiggle my brows at Ash over my shoulder making him roll his eyes.

I lead the guys over to the table we’ve been assigned to. The girls wave at us shyly and blush when we sit.

“Ladies.” Ash greets them with a wink, and they giggle like schoolgirls.

“Good morning.” Han says and they look like they’re about to melt.

The accent does something to girls, and it helps that he’s not bad looking. He’s a pretty boy and the girls love it. Willow sure did…not that it matters. We might find our perfect mate here.

“Delivery!” Someone calls out from the other room.

“Oh good. In here please!” The woman who owns the place calls back. “I had to order a bit more food. You guys are growing boys, so I want to make sure we have enough of everything. This little bakery in town makes the best lemon loaf. You’ll love it.”

A second later in walks a very familiar face. Willow.

“Well shit.” Ash says.

“Willow thank you so much for bringing this over! I wasn’t prepared for such a large event.” The woman says.

“No problem. I had a couple more deliveries anyway.” Willow says with a smile.

It looks like she means it too and doesn’t seem offended that she walked into a room full of people she seems to know and she wasn’t invited.

“Morning ladies!”

“Good morning, Willow!” All the women say at once.

Her eyes move across the room and land on the three of us. There is a second of shock and then confusion and when she looks around there is a look of understanding. She bites back a smile and I narrow my eyes on her.

“I see you’re having a courting party. How exciting! I’ll let you get back to it then.” She waves goodbye and rushes off.

“That girl is just too sweet. Poor thing.” The woman says as she passes us back to what I’m assuming is the kitchen.

“What does she mean by that?” Han asks the girls at the table.

“Oh it’s so sad. She was engaged to a man in her hometown, and he died in a car accident. She couldn’t live there anymore because it brought back too many memories. So, she moved here to start over. So many guys have tried to ask her out, but she always says it’s too soon, but she moved here two years ago. She must have really loved the guy.” One of the girls says before taking a sip of her tea.

I look over at Han and give him a look. He shrugs but doesn’t look deterred. Why can’t he see the big picture? We can’t court her now, especially if she is still mourning her lost love. That won’t be good for us since bonding involves an intense connection. Not only will she need to be bitten and turned but we each will have to bond with her. That creates a forever soul link to us, and if she doesn’t accept it, she won’t survive the shift.

This new revelation just further proves that she isn’t right for us. A small feeling of connection to a woman isn’t enough to risk it. In fact, it might be best to move out of this town as soon as possible. If she lives here then Han won’t let this go, and we will most likely see her everywhere. No, we won’t be staying to see if any of these other girls will work for us either.

We stay just long enough to eat a few things and talk to several women, but we make our apologies to our host about halfway through and tell her we can’t stay. Of course, she isn’t happy and tries to convince us to stay longer, but we can’t. When we finally escape and pile into my truck all I feel is relief. None of the women we met are right for us, so it’s time to move on. At least that’s the plan until Willow walks down the street and my wolf perks up.